Hi Esther, Absolutely everything you say is spot on and I guess I didn't make my meaning clear. I wasn't having a pop at Fleksy; far from it. Rather I was bemoaning the stagnation and lack of enhancements in Apple's own work over the past number of years. In a properly architected system fleksy could be incorporated as an add-on.
I also think you're right in terms of the algorithm. It seems to draw vectors from point-to-point thus giving the word selection. Nothing remotely rocket-science in it, but very nice all the same. Still not buying it though! *smile* On 21 Aug 2012, at 02:04, Esther <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Dónal and Others, > > First off, there are a number of predictive typing apps available for people > who want to take advantage of this on the virtual keyboard of iOS devices. > There are also applications like TextExpander, which make input of text on > computers and iOS devices more efficient by custom snippet definitions, > whether using the virtual keyboard or a hardware keyboard, and go way beyond > simple text substitution. These are not blindness specific. > > I think that the predictive algorithm that Fleksy uses is more sophisticated > than the explanation you gave Travis, but I don't know this for a fact. I'd > guess that it uses relative position changes -- so if you weren't certain of > the absolute position of letters on the screen, but still knew that "e" and > "r" are in the same row, but that "n" is way below and to the right, you'd > still get a match. So, if you placed the phone on a flat table and tried to > type -- not that I ever use the iPhone this way -- and if you got the > approximate spatial relationships between keys correct, but not the absolute > position of the bottom row of keys, you would still get good matches to the > word predictions. > > There are many cases where even people with good spatial awareness might have > difficulty typing on the virtual keyboard. For example, one of the arguments > for the TypeInBraille app was that there were situations like trying to enter > text on a moving bus where it can be difficult to type letters with > precision. Also, depending on how steady your touch is (e.g., tremors due > to various conditions, especially ones that might be age-related, such as > Parkinson's disease), you might benefit from such an application. > > Fleksy is an app where increased use is likely to provide increased gains in > the efficiency advantage. I find that I still spend a bit too much energy in > the swipes to enter words. Also, the basic dictionary may not be matched to > what you need to write, so the ability to import/export words that was added > is a help. My first experience trying to speed type "famous documents and > quotations" from memory hit an immediate vocabulary related snag when the > fairly common words were just not common enough to be recognized by the > algorithm until I entered them exactly and added them to the dictionary. > > Fleksy could take the route that TextExpander did, and make its API freely > available to all developers to include. TextExpander gained enormous > popularity that way, and even though we have alternative ways to input text > now, and dictation works even for languages where typing accented characters > used to be extra work, I still find that any really good text editing app > will have support for TextExpander (and Dropbox) built in. > > HTH. Just my thoughts. YMMV. > > Cheers, > > Esther > <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> > > To reply to this post, please address your message to > [email protected] > > You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at > either the list's own dedicated web archive: > <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> > or at the public Mail Archive: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. > Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> > > The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and > worm-free! > > Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting > the list website at: > <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/> Dónal Fitzpatrick [email protected] <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
